under 2yo, questionable nap situation, and ADRs...WWYD?

[Wosmama6]

Hey there! Looks like we are arriving at POP on the same day. Also our first trip as a family! Our DS will be 2.5 and takes a mid day nap but likes to refuse it when we travel... I have a feeling though that with all the activity, he will cave. He also never naps in a stroller or car seat and as soon as we move him he's up for good... so the plan for now is to go to EMH in the parks, do a table service early lunch, and then head back around 130ish for nap and not return to the parks at night.

 

[DeniseR]

We are taking TWINS that will be a little over 2 years old and one is a good napper and the other isn't. We have NO IDEA what they will do there but are always going to the parks in the mornings and back to the resort in the afternoons. Have some early dinner ADRs planned but will change those after the first couple of days if we feel like they won't work due to grumpy children (if they don't nap.) Guess I'm taking the advice of just see how it goes!

 

[MrsSkellington]

Our son will be 2 1/2 when we go in late October. We've been doing more "outings" lately, and trying to gauge his reactions. We can go pretty hard for about 3 hours or so, and then he needs a break. Not sure if he'll nap in the stroller, since we've always been near our car and could just leave (he sleeps great in the car). I also think that a lot can change in just a few months, so we're going to just see what happens when we get there. I'm not over-planning anything, and am not counting on him being able to stay up much past 8pm. If he does, great, but if not, no big deal. I'm going to keep our meals at around the same time we normally eat, since he loves to eat. I figure that might help.

Good luck! I know I'll need it too!

 

[Meeko5]

Thanks for all the advice! I'm thinking I need to stalk ADR times to try and find things closer to our normal dinner time, and will plan an afternoon break and hope for the best. Right now the little one naps around noon, so definitely need to try and avoid nap time meltdowns in a restaurant!

Best of luck to all you guys with the little ones too

 

[gatormom2tots]

We have always had a very strict nap time when our kids are little. Mine would not nap in the stroller either!

When at Disney, we ALWAYS went back to the resorts for naps. Now we have always had a 2 bdrm dvc rental (or a home offsite) so the kids had their own room to nap- just like at home. And the whole family naps (we gladly nap- you will be exhausted). It sometimes took a little longer ofr the kids to settle in a strange place but it eventually took over.

I realize this may not be doable depending on your situation in terms of resort and your "normal" nap routines.

My best advice is do ANYTHING you can to get your child to nap (whether in the stroller, your lap, back at the resort, etc) because I have seen exhausted kids at Disney and the ENTIRE family will be miserable if one child is. Try to arrange it so your child has time to nap between ADRs.

We once overdid it (our 2 older kids were miserable and cranky- we had naps but did an EMH at 7AM 2 days in a row and stayed to closing the nights before during Spring Break week) and we had 2 miserable kids, and adults, at EPCOT an hour after they opened. We forfeited the morning, went back to our resort-slept, swam and refreshed. Made a world of difference- we had 2 excited kids again by the afternoon!

If you have the flexibility, maybe try to set a nap schedule now that would closely resemble how you have your ADRS scheduled at the parks.

 

[Wosmama6]

all great advice in this thread. we try to be strict on sleep, too, because when he's well rested he's an angel child and when he's not he's miserable.

our problem is... we can't afford a suite. and I know the value rooms are super small... but i'm thinking that we will be so beat too that it will be a family nap/reading time. i asked for a quiet section of POP, so we'll see. i thought about trying to rent DVC credits but wasn't sure it was worth the trouble.

 

[jacknsally19]

all great advice in this thread. we try to be strict on sleep, too, because when he's well rested he's an angel child and when he's not he's miserable.

our problem is... we can't afford a suite. and I know the value rooms are super small... but i'm thinking that we will be so beat too that it will be a family nap/reading time. i asked for a quiet section of POP, so we'll see. i thought about trying to rent DVC credits but wasn't sure it was worth the trouble.

Don't worry about the room being small. Honestly, there is so much walking and heat that I would often nap with my kid during the day so it wasn't a big deal. The other thing I have always brought with me is a book light. The range of light is very limited but it would allow me to do things or read things while kiddo is sleeping.

I have taken my little one at 12 months, 23 months and 2 yr 10 months (yeah I'm ridiculous) - we are heading back right before she turns 4. Anyway I have found that its useful to kind of alternate long days with short days. I would have short days where we just headed back to the hotel early and that was it for the night and the the long days where we'd leave the park early have a long nap and then head back out. So short days would have either Breakfast or lunch at the park with dinner at the hotel.... and the long days I would plan dinner at the park.

 

[honeybunches]

We plan our credit-reserved ADRs for the evening. My kids say that they won't nap, and they don't at home - but at Disney, we all nap 1-2 hours almost every day. We are typically early risers, so we get up and eat a small breakfast, then head to any park that has early hours. We head back to the hotel when the park starts to get crowded around lunchtime, and everyone lays down in the cool, dark room. Within a couple of minutes, they are asleep! DH is the biggest napper of us all, so regardless of what the kids and I do, I plan a nap for him each day. There have been a few times that I take one or both of the kids out on my own while DH naps, but we are all happier with a bit of a rest. Then we are ready to go to dinner somewhere fun (and still be nice to each other).

We also get park hopper every time, so that we can head out to a new park after we wake up.

 

[pigletgirl]

Thanks for all the advice! I'm thinking I need to stalk ADR times to try and find things closer to our normal dinner time, and will plan an afternoon break and hope for the best. Right now the little one naps around noon, so definitely need to try and avoid nap time meltdowns in a restaurant!

Best of luck to all you guys with the little ones too

Yep, it just harder to be flexible with a little one in tow, but that's okay. It's part of the deal!

But for our DD, the afternoon nap was critical so we could go and enjoy the evening entertainment.

There was one day we didn't take a break and it was a big mistake. We stayed in the MK all day and by our 630 BOG ADR, she was loosing it. She finally zonked out, but DH vowed to never let her skip her nap again!

 

[Wosmama6]

Yep, it just harder to be flexible with a little one in tow, but that's okay. It's part of the deal!

But for our DD, the afternoon nap was critical so we could go and enjoy the evening entertainment.

There was one day we didn't take a break and it was a big mistake. We stayed in the MK all day and by our 630 BOG ADR, she was loosing it. She finally zonked out, but DH vowed to never let her skip her nap again!

Pigletgirl, can you tell me your DD's normal bedtime and how that worked with the evening entertainment? I'm not sure it's worth it to go back to the parks at night since DS usually goes to bed at 8 or 830 and fireworks don't start til 9... would rather him miss the fireworks than all of us be there and he's miserable, not enjoying it anyway

 

[pigletgirl]

She was 15 months when we went Sept 2014. Her normal bedtime was 8-830. 9p at the latest. She napped really well at the resort (2.5 hours) and then we headed back out. The only really late night was Wishes. We just played it by ear and she did better than we hoped.

The only other thing I can think of is that she was still on CST pretty much the whole trip so when it was 930, it was 830 back home.

 

[Pirate Granny]

Very few TS will allow you to being a stroller in the restaurant, sleeping child or not. So keep that in mind. CS, no problem...

 

[kohlby]

My kids wouldn't nap in the stroller or back at the room - even when we had an 11 month old! We found what worked best was to not plan dinner and to figure that out as we went. You're not going for almost a year, so it's highly likely that the noon nap time will be pushed a little later. (One of my kids was done with naps before 2 years old and another stopped right at 2. The other was at 3 though - that's for home. Naps only happened at Disney with little babies for us). I would stick to lunch time for your table service meals. You can always take a break after lunch and go back. Or - if you have a non-Disney napper, then at least you won't be having a meltdown during the meal.

As for evening entertainment, we had to limit that when our kids were younger. We only planned it for our very last night or a night before a no-park day. We couldn't get them to nap, but we could get them to sleep well at night.